Tagged With "Tough Trains"
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Re: United, Delta ready to retire 'Queen of the Skies'
I'm afraid to say that the changing modes of transport are a yard stick to measure your life-span. I remember with great affection travelling on a steam train. But fail to recall the hot ash that went into your eye through the open window. My favourite childhood vehicle .....
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Re: Trains in Cuba
Thanks for the info. I too love Mark's site. I will try my damnedest to do a train journey if I can so I can send you details. Wilbur.
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Re: Belgium and Sweden see night-train link
I haven't found a definitive answer to that; the nearest I have come is speculation that DB is concerned about competition with existing conventional trains along the route; DB is the major carrier on the route, but they are clearly not doing much of a job of it as the schedule I've linked here shows. The minimum number of train changes is 2, with some itineraries requiring 8! And the ones with only 2 or 3 changes sell for nearly $200, compared to $70 with 8 changes. I'd think a direct...
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Re: 12 Countries ask vouchers instead of refunds
In a conversation with Travel Rob last week, I set out my minimum conditions before a bailout or other relief can be discussed: 1) All boarding to be by efficiency, no priority for anyone except physical need 2) minimum one free checked bag for all flights over 250 miles (under 250, you should drive or take a train, anyway) 3) elimination of most nuisance fees 4) minimum 32" pitch with no more than 2" recline 5) 20-year cap on exec salaries...CEO to earn max 20x full-time flight attendant...
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Re: Sweden jumps into night-train market
I remember taking the night train from Munich to Paris. It was very smooth and quiet. Hit the sack in the evening and wake up in Paris. I've taken Amtrak bedrooms on overnight trips, but got little sleep from the rocking and noises.
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Re: Sweden jumps into night-train market
I'd agree on the Amtrak experience: fine trip, but not sleep-friendly on the Sunset Limited or the Coast Starlight. But I also found the Catania-to-Naples night train not the smoothest either, but it did come with the excitement of the entire train being loaded onto the ferry for the crossing to the mainland!
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Re: France Train Service, SNCF, Expands Low Cost Trains and Buses
It's great news for budget travelers. I took the Ouigo train from to Marseille in 2013 and loved it.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#288)
Gumbo gets on the train and sees some low tech.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#288)
Since this is a hard puzzle, Gumbo is showing you Sundays clue early for extra time to solve it!. This clue is of a train along the line
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #11
And what possible good is a puzzle without a bit of chicanery - by definition, I should think. I haven't seen the arena at Arles, though it's already on my list for the next visit to France. I have walked past the arena in Verona as it was between the train station and the garden I'd come to photograph. Likely why it came to mind just after the Colosseum.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day: Jan. 16, 2014: Liverpool Victoria Gallery
My favourite time to visit attractions is May-June-July. Before the little monsters are released on school vacation. Liverpool has hundreds of things to do - no exaggeration ! Here's 128 to go on with http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/A...seyside_England.html Liverpool makes a good hub for visiting nearby Chester with its 2,000 year old Roman Walls and Tudor Buildings. The River Dee and North Wales. All using local public transport - mostly trains. You can get a flight, Liverpool - Dublin from...
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Re: Suggestions wanted: Andalusia
Will you have a car? I ask, because if you will, you might consider stopping at one or more of the White Towns between Seville & Granada. I stayed a week in a house just outside Iznajar, a lovely little place, and visited a bigger town, Antequera, worth a stop. For a brief stop I'd recommend the smaller town, one of a number in the area, millions of olive trees everywhere. There is no train there although Antequera has a station, but outside the town. Below the town of Iznajar, beside...
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Re: Finishing college. Need help planning trip to U.K,
Hi Hank, I've actually found the UK a pretty reasonable destination in recent years, especially outside of London.(My budget was way under yours for a month long trip to Europe last June.)A lot of museums are free. Transportation costs within the country can be reasonable too.Not only do they have advance cheap train tickets but they have bus and budget air choices.And of course there are some good budget hotel chains as well, such as Travelodge and the Tune Hotel Have fun and keep watching...
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Re: Finishing college. Need help planning trip to U.K,
Starting to get things planned now Hank ! You have the choice of flying into Edinburgh in Scotland. Manchester in the North of England. Or Gatwick / Heathrow which both serve the London area in the South of England. You can get a Train to Paris to end your tour with a few days of Culture in a foreign language ! Fly back to the US from Paris will save you hundreds of Dollars because you wont pay the UK "Departure Tax" but not vital ! Liverpool is less than an hour on the Train from...
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Re: Finishing college. Need help planning trip to U.K,
Wow, this is turning into a real education!! I checked with my uncle and yes, I can fly Chicago to Manchester and return from either London or Paris to Chicago. The ticket is free to him and he said he would cover any fees as a "graduation gift to me" (he's a pretty cool dude!), but I don't want to burden him with a heavy departure fee, so maybe Paris would be the way to go. I'd like to leave about Friday, May 9th and return 4 weeks later, June 6th. A few days later and returning a few days...
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Re: Spring Honeymoon Help
Congratulations SueZee! We're delighted in your marriage, and you've picked a great country in which to honeymoon. May is not too early to go to Italy, although pack a light jacket just in case. The crowds won't be there yet and you'll save some money when compared to the peak summer season. Where to go is very much a matter of taste. Most definitely you need to go to Venice and I'd say spend at least 5 days here, maybe with a day trip or two (such as to the glass making island of Murano or...
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Re: Finishing college. Need help planning trip to U.K,
That's helpful too, Rob. So with your guys advice, I'm thinking of the following plan, which still has holes I need to fill. I actually like the idea of Paris more than Scotland for this trip, plus I worry about the cost of travel to Scotland back so unless I can get a really cheap plane ticket or train ticket to Edinburgh, I think I'll drop that and focus on eastern UK and then on to Paris. So this is where I'm at now: 1) Arrive in Manchester. Maybe ??2 days 2) Travel Liverpool. 3 days 3)...
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Re: Finishing college. Need help planning trip to U.K,
Hank, While you're in London you can get a Coach (Bus) Tour that will show you Stonehenge and Bath and The Cotswold Villages - very pretty and very old. Leeds Castle (not in Leeds, close to London). Stonehenge is not an overnight stop - remember what I said about distances in the UK being smaller? If you need to fill a gap take the Train (or Bus) to York. Very old - lots of History and a Museum that will take you back 150 years walking the streets of Victorian England. Go into Old Shops and...
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
Thanks FlashFlyer. The thing about adventures like this is you have no idea what an adventure it'll be until it happens and you can't get out of it even if you want to. So, no guts required. Yes, Burma will certainly change, has already. Currently not enough infrastructure for those wanting to visit but if you've traveled in Asia you know the entrepreneurial spirit is alive & well and it won't be long, I suspect, before it will come to resemble other parts of the region. So, good news as...
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
I hope that wasn't your last venture into third world high speed travel. Reminds me of Austria on the Zillertal Bahn Valley Railway. The Train went so slow that passengers would lean out and pick wild flowers from the trackside. Each carriage had warning notices - in English - not to do this. But ....
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
If I live it won't be my last. Just prior to that one, same trip, I'd gone from Guilin to Nanning, then after lunch got on another, overnight to Hanoi. Later overnight again, Hanoi to Hoi An. Now that I think about it I realize they got progressively worse as I went along, culminating in The Worst. I hadn't thought about it until just this minute, hindsight is a wonderful thing that way. A great disappointment to me several years ago was the apparently permanent cancellation of the Hanoi to...
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Re: Finishing college. Need help planning trip to U.K,
England is only as big as Florida ! I haven't seen a Guide book that sub-divides us! Wales is full of Castles, Mountains and Lakes. Tourists often divide England between the North and South. The North is often cooler and wetter than further South. But your Dollar will go twice as far up here in the North! And we're much friendlier. Have a look at places you'd like to visit. York (the old one) will keep you busy for 2 days. Train or Bus from Liverpool. Or a day or two in Europe from Liverpool...
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Re: Finishing college. Need help planning trip to U.K,
Hi guys, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It was good to be with my family again. Visiting and catching up with everyone took longer than I'd thought, but did do a little research into the trip and came out with this plan. Basically, with GarryRF's advice, I think I'll focus my time in the north to save money cause my budget is limited. After that I'll finish my vacation in London and Paris. I need to find places to stay but more important now just to frame the trip. The details I...
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Re: Finishing college. Need help planning trip to U.K,
Hi Everyone! Hope you had a good Christmas. I spent mine with my parents, which was nice. I've been busy planning this trip that you've helped me with and I think I'm making good progress. Largely starting to arrange places to stay and developing a list of "must see" things for myself. Using the hostels and airB&B I've been able to get decent looking and affordable places for me. I still need to find something for London and Paris, but the rest of the trip is mostly worked out. Might...
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Re: Finishing college. Need help planning trip to U.K,
Hi Hank. If you enjoy hiking and the weathers fair then you can go up to the Snow line and above. Take the Train up, then continue on foot to the peak. Train from Llandudno Junction on the North Wales coast Plenty of info here: http://www.nationalparks.gov.u...arks/travelsnowdonia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utjPQZVpOiY for the Mountain Railway .
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
My brother says that he would love to travel to countries like this. He says it would be really cool to travel on a train like this. I think I'm more of a Europe guy, but it would be a really cool experience to go on a train like that.
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
It isn't cool to travel on a train where you get thrown around in the carriage because the tracks are warped with age John ! Many journeys take 24 hours of hanging on like a Roller Coaster ! That's just in Asia. You'll be fine in Europe.
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
Fascinating read! If I do take this train trip, and it's currently included in the plan, for our hoped for trip to Mynamar later this year, I can't say I wasn't warned. Coming from a country that shakes, rattles, and rolls pretty much every day there were two things about the earthquake that worried me. First, it was big enough to produce screams!! Second, it seems that no-one bothered to check the tracks before the train left the station. And so as I was reading I expected a derailment -...
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Re: Minneapolis in the winter
Hi Theodore! I am a Mall of America fan. You can easily spend an entire weekend (or many evenings) at the Mall of America. First of all, the mall is very easy to get to by train from downtown (CICAK did a wonderful job explaining that), and fares are quite cheap (fares go for about $1.75 to $2.25 one way depending on what time of day you ride). As CICAK also mentioned, there is something for everybody at the mall. If you just want to find a warm dry place to walk and people watch, I believe...
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Re: Capital of Culture Series: Liverpool
No offense taken...your remark just started me on a train of thought that stopped at a new station!
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Re: Paris-Barcelona Now Linked by High-Speed Train
Great thing about Europe, especially for travelers, are the many options they have for getting around. Train is often the best option for those going from the heart of one city to the heart of another. I'm glad to her this route is now open to people.
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Re: Cheapest airfare to Portugal and Spain
Can't speak too much about SEA-TAC strategies, but I'm sure you'll have to change planes at least once! Try to avoid any that change at London, because of the British Air Passenger Duty on the way home, and the huge hassle of Heathrow. I did a little random searching for next July, using an open-jaw plan: Fly to Lisbon, train to Porto, fly to Barcelona, fly home, and found fares around $1600 on offer. Lisbon is not that competitive a city, so one strategy would be to keep an eye out for...
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Re: Walking through New Orleans...nibbling
Sorry, but we had a train to catch! Next time, come along...
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Re: Jama Masjid, Delhi (Where Gumbo was #256)
Delhi has a lot to offer in terms of interesting sites. HOWEVER, the air pollution is appalling, particularly in the winter. We will be in Delhi in March - when things should start to get a little better - but we have cut our stay there to a mere 24 hours. We would have liked to re-visit some places like Humayun's Tomb or the Jama Mosque, but in the end decided that we could not face the atrocious smog again. We will now leave on the earliest convenient train south.
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Re: Italian town bans barking
Calling Dr. Pavlov! We need you back to work on some other aspects of dog behavior. Seriously, it should be possible to train dogs not to bark; the question is what other behaviors would be affected?
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Re: Italian town bans barking
You might be able to train dogs to bark less, but the only way you can get them not to bark is to surgically transect the nerves that go to their vocal cords, or to surgically mutilate the cords so they don't work any more. Sounds very compassionate, doesn't it?
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Re: July 22, 2017: Comic statues, Bratislava, Slovakia
When my wife and I revisited Bratislava a couple of years ago, our last visit there had been some 30 years previously. What a difference! Our memories were of a drab, grey place and what we found this time was a pleasant, vibrant city with lots of interesting corners. We are going to Vienna in a couple of weeks' time. There is a good (and very cheap) train link from there to Bratislava and we will probably go back.
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Re: No more TGV: France says 'Oui' to new name
Why would they want to name it something that sounds like "boredom, difficulty, tedium, obstacle?" I don't get it. Seems strange. Or were they going more for, "Je m'ennui de toi" so I'm going to hop on a fast train! Also reminds me of, "Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane Ain't got time to take a fast train. Lonely days are gone, I'm a-goin' home My baby, just-a wrote me a letter" In any event, still not getting it for the TGV's new name. I know the pronunciations are a bit different but reminds...
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Re: Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka
Sorry about the delay in responding - I have been on an Indian train for what seems like eternity! Yes, George, Sri Lanka is a good-value destination and it is changing fast. So now is a good time to go. As to Udawalawe vs. Yala, we prefer the former. Yala seems to be the one which everyone knows about, but we were a bit disappointed when we went (admittedly a long time ago).
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Re: In Egypt: Up the Nile
Back in 1989, when TWA still existed, took their 14 day tour. I believe there were 35 of us. We started in Cairo - 4 days staying at Mena House opposite the pyramids A huge WOW! During our stay there we traveled to Sakkaha and Memphis. Boarded a bus that took us to Alexandria - 2 days staying at Montazah Sheraton. From there we took a train to Aswan (dirty dishes - everyone sick). In Aswan, we stayed on Elephantine Island's Loews Aswan Oberoi. Went to Temples of Philae and flew to Abu...
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Re: Kettering, Northamptonshire: Where Gumbo Was (#38)
When I was researching the history of the land my house is built on I opened up so much information. During WW1 the land was used for a temporary Army Camp. Many new soldiers were from Wales - 20 miles away - who spoke no English ! But on the 8th June 1917 Capt. (later General) Patton arrived in the Port of Liverpool England on his way to France. He took a train to Litherland Railway Station and stayed here in my garden until he left to catch a Train from Liverpool to London. I often find...
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#59)
It kind of reminds me a train station....Maybe one of the Paris stations.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#59)
I knew I'd seen this so went through all my photos. at first I also thought train station in Europe but your most recent clues helped. It's the Harold Washington Library in Chicago?
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Re: Heads Up for Travelers: Iceland's Volcanoes May Disrupt Travel Again
There can be an up side to travel during an eruption. My plans proceeded during the 2010 eruption and the first result was a southern route to Rome and a spectacular view of the Pyrenees, flying parallel to them. I learned how big those mountains are, had had no idea. After arrival in Rome I immediately booked sleeper compartment tickets from Budapest to London (already had Rome-Budapest), to replace the flight I'd booked. As it transpired, the flight ban was over by the time I got on the...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, February 22, 2015: Machu Picchu
Beautiful photos, Grand Escapes! I'm especially fond of the one of the llama roaming the streets of Machu Picchu. They are the official "lawn mowers" of the park. Machu Picchu after the tourist train leaves and before it arrives is a totally different experience than during the peak of the day. If there's one travel spot you'll want to spend a night or two so that you can enjoy some tranquility before it gets overwhelmed with people, then I'd say this is the one.
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Re: More WiFi in NYC Subway...soon...maybe.
Transit Wireless is a company formed for this project; it's owned by the phone and data carriers, which have paid part of the costs. The other revenue stream is the potential for advertising, and also sponsorships ("WiFi at this station is sponsored by...") Everything here seems to be a big to-do; we've been on lots of European systems that have had full service, including tunnels, for quite a while. We're also way behind on "train will arrive" signs, because the NYCTA way is to design from...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Dec 4th, 2014: A Ride to Paradise
A favorite with my kids when they were young (and with me!) Nearby, there is the Pennsylvania state railroad museum and the National Toy Train Museum, as well as all the attractions of Lancaster County "Amish Country." Thanks!
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Re: World's 10 Best Airports? Maybe...
These are all important international hubs, but I'm inclined to agree with TravelRob. Most of these airports are massive and far from user friendly. Maybe they have a large assortment of restaurants from which to choose, etc. But I like short lines, a quick security screen and a reasonable walk to the gate not requiring a bus or train to get there.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? (#39)
The photo looks too idealized -- almost not real. Is it perhaps something from the land of Thomas Kinkade? Or a model train set?